Presbyterian (18-18, 10-5) evened its overall record for the first time since March 6 and completed its second consecutive Big South Conference series sweep Saturday with wins of 5-4 and 4-3 at USC Upstate (16-20, 4-11).
The Blue Hose, last at .500 (6-6) on March 6, extended their winning streak to seven games. It's the first seven-game winning streak for PC since the 2013 season. In between the league sweeps of UNC Asheville and USC Upstate, Presbyterian beat Wofford by one run for the third time this season to sweep the yearly series.
Presbyterian took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth in Game 1 only to have Upstate score twice to tie the game.
Michael Varga led off the ninth with a single. Pinch-runner Matt Burke was sacrificed to second by Andrew Livingston. Burke stole third and scored when the throw was wild. Grayson Stoneking pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the win.
In Game 2, Jimmy Marcelli's two-run homer in the seventh wiped out a 3-2 deficit.
The wins allowed coach Elton Pollock's Blue Hose to pull into a second-place tie with Winthrop, 1 1/2 games behind Big South leader Campbell. Both PC and Winthrop leapfrogged Radford in the standings. The Highlanders lost to Campbell, 6-2, earlier Saturday to even that series at 1-1 going into Sunday's finale.
Winthrop (20-15, 10-5) got a pair of wins at UNC Asheville (12-22, 7-8). A four-run third and a five-run fifth provided the Eagles with a 9-1 win in the opener. Tyler Baker had three of the Eagles' 15 hits. Nate Pawelczyk (7-2) went the first six innings and Dalton Whitaker finished for the save.
In Game 2, Asheville scored two runs in the first, but coach Tom Riginos' squad tied the score in the fourth. Tyler Baker's squeeze bunt put Winthrop up in the fifth and C.J. Conrad added an RBI single later in the inning.
The Bulldogs scored a run in the seventh, but Colten Rendon pitched two shutout innings to get his third save of the season.
Elsewhere:
* John Michael Faile's two-run single in the fifth inning broke a tie and North Greenville (32-9, 19-5) beat Mount Olive (26-12, 14-9), 9-6, to clinch the Conference Carolinas regular-season championship. Faile had three hits and joined Adam Sasser in driving in three runs as NGU avoided a series sweep. The Crusaders will be the top seed for the league tournament beginning April 25 in Tigerville.
* Newberry (36-10, 19-2) moved closer to clinching the regular-season championship for the South Atlantic Conference with wins of 9-5 and 5-2 over Catawba (34-12, 17-7) at the Smith Road Complex. The Wolves are two games ahead of Lincoln Memorial (30-13, 17-4) with three games left in the regular season. Those three games are at Lincoln Memorial, which must either win three games or win two games with one rainout to prevent Newberry from clinching top seed for the league tournament in Kodak, Tenn., later this month..
* Spartanburg Methodist (25-15, 13-3) replaced Florence-Darlington Tech (34-11, 13-5) in first place in NJCAA Region 10 with a doubleheader sweep at Mooneyham Field. The Pioneers snapped an 11-game winning streak by the Stingers with a six-inning 11-1 win in the opener. Jordan Jackson didn't allow an earned run in pitching a complete game. They took Game 2, 3-1, by scoring three runs in the bottom of the sixth. The teams play two more games in Spartanburg on Sunday, weather permitting.
* Florida State was struggling entering the weekend, but the Seminoles (21-13, 9-8) beat Clemson (25-10, 11-6) for the second straight day, 16-2, to clinch an ACC series win in Tallahassee. Sam Hall gave the Tigers a first-inning lead with a leadoff home run, but the Seminoles erupted for 5 runs in the fourth, 3 in the fifth and 4 in the sixth to take charge. Clemson, which was held to five hits, tries to avoid a sweep on Sunday.
* After two strikeouts to open the ninth inning, Florida got two walks and a walk-off home run for a 6-4 win over South Carolina (21-15, 4-11) to keep the Gamecocks without an SEC series win at the midpoint of the league schedule. Brady Allen singled and homered for Carolina, which remains in danger of not qualifying for the league tournament.
* Claflin (22-10) extended its winning streak to eight with wins of 6-3 and 8-0 at Clark Atlanta. A scheduled Sunday game between the teams has been canceled.
* Senior right-hander Eric Mullinax pitched a two-hitter for his first career complete game and Limestone (15-29, 9-15) snapped a six-game losing streak with a 6-0 win over Southern Wesleyan (16-26, 7-16) in the opener of a Conference Carolinas doubleheader. The Saints took Game 2, 5-2, to take the series 2-1.
* Wofford (23-15, 6-3) clinched a SoCon series win with a 15-4 win in Game 1, but VMI (9-27, 5-7) avoided a series sweep, 5-4, behind Zak Kent's complete game. Brett Rodriguez had five hits on the day for the Terriers.
*Furman (12-23, 5-7) missed a chance to take advantage of being at home to climb into the top half of the Southern Conference standings, losing a doubleheader to East Tennessee State (25-10, 6-3) by scores of 8-7 and 11-5 to drop the series, 2-1. The Paladins fell behind 8-1 in the seventh, but pulled within one and had the bases loaded when the game ended. The Buccaneers jumped to a big lead again in Game 2, but Furman could not respond. Jabari Richards homered in both games, giving him seven for the season and 29 for his career. He moved past Will Muzika into seventh place on Furman's career list. The Paladins fell into three-way tie for fifth place with Mercer and Western Carolina at the midpoint of their league schedule.
Saturday's complete scorelist
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